Credit: ESA
E3 2019 is probably the most PC-centric show we’ve seen in years, what with Microsoft announcing Xbox Game Pass for PC and bringing its future first-party games to Steam. Those are big moves for a company that’s long seemed to tolerate its Windows-based audience more than embrace it. And with Sony's absence, it’s safe to say pretty much every game at the show (aside from Nintendo’s) will come to PC at some point.
What games? Well, we’ve rounded up a whole big list for you—nearly every trailer we saw over the last two days, from Outer Worlds to Microsoft Flight Simulator, and from Doom Eternal to Watch Dogs Legion. It’s been an exciting E3, and we haven’t even hit the show floor yet.
We’ve listed these games roughly in the chronological order of their announcements, so be sure to check out the whole thing to avoid missing out. And while we’ve covered all the big reveals, we couldn’t squeeze every new game trailer in here. If you’re looking for trailers for some smaller games and expansions, be sure to check out our coverage of the Microsoft, PC Gaming Show, Bethesda, Ubisoft, and Square Enix events.
Baldur’s Gate III
Technically Baldur’s Gate III is the first trailer we saw at E3 2019, right? Sure, Google’s Stadia event happened last Thursday, but I’m counting it as part of the festivities. And it was one hell of a way to start the week, both a surprise-sequel I thought we’d never get and an absolutely horrific trailer that teases an invasion of Mind Flayers, one of the creepiest and most threatening Dungeons & Dragons enemies.
Oh, and it’s being developed by Divinity: Original Sin studio Larian, which is probably one of the best-case scenarios you could ask for. All in all, there’s a lot to be excited about here.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep
If we’re going to count Google’s Stadia primer as an E3 event, then we might as well include Bungie’s Destiny 2 expansion announcement as well. Hell, I want to include it. This was Bungie’s big moment, its chance to show us a post-Activision Destiny 2, and Bungie delivered. With a free-to-play version landing alongside an extraordinary looking new expansion due in September, plus a shift from Battle.net to Steam, the future of Destiny 2 looks pretty promising. It’s taken a while, but Bungie’s finally hit its stride and delivered the game fans wanted all along.
Jedi: Fallen Order
EA Play felt a bit empty this year, but it did allow Respawn to show off its upcoming Jedi: Fallen Order ahead of its November 15 release. Problem is, it didn’t really show anything that hooked us. What little we saw looked a bit like The Force Unleashed, crossed with a bit of Sekiro—not a bad combination, but nothing too exciting either.
Game Informer’s cover story sounds more promising, with interesting ideas like real-time space travel and a Metroid-style approach to exploration. Those ideas are harder to demo though, and will probably take an entire game to fully appreciate.
Outer Worlds
Microsoft started its press conference with Obsidian’s Outer Wilds, one of my most anticipated games this year. Once again we got a tightly edited trailer that gives little context or hint at the overall structure, but there are plenty of beautiful sights to admire and I’m sold on the Fallout: New Vegas-looking conversations alone. I also think I saw a shrink ray among the more routine weapons, which seems like a fun gimmick. The October 25 release date can’t come soon enough for this one.
Bleeding Edge
Ninja Theory revealed its first game as part of Microsoft’s rapidly expanding family of studios, and it looks a lot more DmC: Devil May Cry than Hellblade. Bleeding Edge is a hero-driven 4v4 combat game that shares a lot of similarities with Gearbox’s ill-fated Battleborn at first blush. Fingers crossed this one winds up more compelling.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Another year, another Ori and the Will o’ the Wisps trailer at E3. It looks as gorgeous as ever, but I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to, you know, actually play it. Maybe someday.
Minecraft Dungeons
It took more than a decade, but we’re getting a Minecraft spin-off. Minecraft Dungeons blends the core game’s blocky artwork with what appears to be Diablo-style dungeon crawling, complete with 4-player co-op both locally and online. I’m already jazzed to play this with my kids.
Blair Witch
“The Blair Witch game is made by Bloober Team.” Brad typed those words into our chat and I went from being sort of interested to eager. I didn’t see their name in the trailer, but they’re the ones who uploaded the trailer and thus it’s safe to say the Layers of Fear and Observer devs are working on this found footage adaptation. It’s hard to imagine any team outdoing Outlast, which was that concept in everything but name, but Bloober’s been on a streak these last few years and I’ll be curious how they meld an established universe with their fever dream approach to horror.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 is releasing sooner than I ever anticipated: April 16, 2020. Less than a year from now, we’ll have it in hand. I still can’t believe it.
But that’s not even the wildest fact we found out during Microsoft’s press conference. Turns out Keanu Reeves is making a celebrity cameo in the game, as you’ll see at the end of the latest trailer—which if I had to guess appears to be the beginning of the game, with a deal gone sour and your character apparently left for dead at the end.
Dying Light 2
Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t the only major April 2020 release, if you can believe it. Dying Light 2 is also releasing before I ever expected, and also targeting that same month.That makes two sprawling, story-heavy games due within weeks of each other. It’s going to be an embarrassment of riches.
The latest trailer introduces us to protagonist Aiden Caldwell, who floats between the various factions at each others’ throats in Dying Light 2 and will change the fabric of the city by siding with one or another, a feature I hope we see more concrete examples of during this week’s E3 demo.
Next page: The trailers continue!
